On This Day
Reminiscing Dinesh Karthik’s Nidahas finals’ performance
By CricShotsStaff - Mar 18, 2021 4:32 pm
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On this day, 2 years the whole of India saw the tremendous finisher Dinesh ‘Nidahas’ Karthik is born in the finals of the Nidahas trophy hitting a last-ball six to seal the deal for the Indian team against Bangladesh. The wicketkeeper-batsman from Chennai has tremendous fighting qualities since his international career debut way back in 2004.  Dinesh Kartik had stint under Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar who helped him a lot in making a comeback into the Indian national team.

nidhas
Nidahas-Trophy 2018

The Bangladeshi Tigers innings got off to a good start but the Indian bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals curtailing their progress. Sabbir Rahman scored a hearty  77 which consisted of 7 fours and 4 sixes in just 50 balls helping Bangladesh to a respectable first inning total of 166.

Indian openers, KL Rahul and Rohit set India off with a good start. India’s middle-order batsman also played very well while his stay at the crease. After Panday’s dismissal, the Indian team seemed in a spot of bother as no Indan batsman could attack the Bangladeshi bowlers before settling in and consuming balls, a luxury India didn’t have in the match.

All-rounder Vijay Shankar also struggled to connect his bat to the ball and wasted our consecutive deliveries in the 18th over. The men in blue required 34 from the last 2 overs as Dinesh Kartik walked in to face Rubel Hossain.

Kartik
Dinesh Kartik

Karthik hit a couple of sixes and one boundary collected 16 runs off the first three deliveries against Rubel who recovered well and conceded only 6 of the next 3 balls. The Equation was brought down to 12 runs in the final over.   Soumya Sarkar had the responsibility of bowling the all decisive final over with Vijay Shankar taking strike as Kartik hit a boundary of the last bowl against Rubel Hussian.

Kartik got the strike back after the third ball as Vijay ran a single and not before getting just a single wide off the first 3 balls.  With nothing much on offer, Kartik returned the strike back to Shankar on the third ball who hit a much need down the third man in the 4th ball of the last over.  Vijay Shankar hit the second last of the innings high in the air and couldn’t clear the boundary line giving his wicket away not before the batsman ran across the pitch meaning Karthik was back on strike.

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The boys in Blue needed 5 runs off the last ball to lift the Nidahas Trophy. Dinesh Kartik pulled the rabbit out of his helmet and hit a flat-six across the extra cover region. His last ball six last against Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar was certainly was a dream come true movement for the Chennai lad.

Dinesh Karthik played an absolutely magnificent innings scoring those 29 runs in just 8 balls. Kartik remained unbeaten to ensure the Indian team emerges as eventual winners. Kartick was also awarded the match of the match for this wonderful heroics.

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India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun spoke of the incident and said, “Look at the way Karthik was using the crease. He stood outside the crease for the first two balls he faced. For the next two balls, he went deep into his crease. Karthik foxed the bowler into bowling the line and length, he wanted.”

Arun said, “Karthik is among those rare batsmen who can play shots all 360 degrees. And even under extreme pressure, his perception skills are good. It was a massive occasion for all of us when he produced that amazing finish.”